;)
March 14, 2022
Late Morning/Afternoon Update:
Burgess Everett of Politico: "Sen. Joe Manchin will oppose Sarah Bloom Raskin's nomination to the Federal Reserve Board, imperiling her already stalled bid to win confirmation. Raskin's nomination is stuck in the Senate Banking Committee amid a GOP boycott of a committee vote on her nomination, effectively blocking her confirmation from advancing to the Senate floor." MB: Raskin is married to Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.).
Koch Is Bullish on Russia. Judd Legum of Popular Information: "Koch Industries, the conglomerate run by right-wing billionaire Charles Koch, has numerous ongoing business operations in Russia.... The limited public comments made by Koch subsidiaries operating in Russia indicate that their business activities have continued."
U.K. Sky News: "Police with riot shields have entered a luxury property in central London reportedly owned by billionaire Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, after it was occupied by squatters. Police responded to the scene in Belgrave Square after squatters took over the property on Monday morning. A Ukrainian flag was hung from a window and a banner read 'this property has been liberated'. Mr Deripaska, a 54-year-old industrialist who founded the aluminium giant Rusal, was added to the UK government's sanctions list on 10 March, following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The fate of his property portfolio in Britain remains unclear after the government said his assets would be frozen."
The New York Times' live updates of developments Monday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here: "Negotiators from Russia and Ukraine met again on Monday for another round of talks aimed at finding a way out of the war, even as Russian forces broadened their devastating offensive and the Kremlin insisted that it would not pull back until 'all plans' for the invasion are fulfilled. Mykhailo Podolyak, a member of Ukraine's delegation, said Monday afternoon that the talks had taken a 'technical pause,' and would resume on Tuesday.... China dismissed U.S. allegations that Russia had asked it for military equipment and economic support.... Kyiv was hit by heavy artillery strikes on Monday morning, after days of severe fighting in the suburbs."
The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Monday are here.
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Putin's War Crimes, Ctd.
The Guardian's live updates of developments Monday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here: "Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy will virtually address the US Congress on Wednesday, 16 March at 1pm GMT, US Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer and House speaker Nancy Pelosi said.... More than 2,400 civilians have been killed in Mariupol since Russia invaded Ukraine last month, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said today.... Russian forces have damaged a high-voltage line connecting Ukraine's Chernobyl nuclear power plant to the power grid, Ukraine's state energy company Ukrenergo said. The head of Ukrenergo, Volodymyr Kudrytskiy, said the plant was relying on electricity from diesel generators after external power supplies to the plant were damaged again. The retired nuclear plant lost power early last week but supply was restored on Sunday, AFP reports.... A former Russian foreign minister has joined a call for all sides in the Ukrainian war to return to diplomacy and reduce 'the dramatically elevated risk' of a catastrophic nuclear war, Patrick Wintour reports. The appeal co-authored by Professor Igor Ivanov, the president of the Russian International Affairs Council, may be a sign that some in the Russian foreign policy establishment believe the risks of Russia pursuing a purely military solution to its grievances in Ukraine is a strategic mistake." ~~~
~~~ The Washington Post's live updates of developments Monday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here: "Talks are set to resume Monday morning between Kyiv and the Kremlin after a weekend of Russian attacks that raised fears of a widening of the war -- and unrelenting fighting that obstructed efforts to provide relief to besieged Ukrainian cities, including the port city of Mariupol. Ukrainian officials have projected a more optimistic tone for the talks than on previous occasions when negotiations between the two nations have ended without resolution. Ukrainian officials say Russia is 'starting to talk constructively' as their forces put up a fierce resistance -- but its position is firm: It wants an immediate cease-fire and Russian troops gone."
BUT. On the Road to WWIII. Amy Wang of the Washington Post: "A growing number of U.S. lawmakers ratcheted up pressure on President Biden on Sunday to increase military aid to Ukraine, including sending fighter jets and air defense systems that the administration rejected last week. The public calls from both Republicans and Democrats to answer Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's urgent pleas for air assistance come as the Biden administration declined an offer from Poland to deliver MiG-29 airplanes to Ukraine for fear such a move could be interpreted by the Russians as an escalation of the United States' role in the war.... [Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio)] argued that because Putin has already declared other forms of U.S. military aid escalatory, sending planes to Ukraine would not risk intensifying the conflict.... Speaking from near the Poland-Ukraine border on Sunday, Portman said the bombing of the military facility in western Ukraine was close enough to be heard on the Polish side.... Separately, 58 members of the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus on Sunday again urged the Biden administration to try to facilitate the fighter jet deal with Poland, as well as to provide Ukraine with other air defense systems, including drones and surface-to-air missiles." ~~~
MEANWHILE. Edward Wong & Julian Barnes of the New York Times: "Russia asked China to give it military equipment and support for the war in Ukraine after ... Vladimir V. Putin began a full-scale invasion last month, according to U.S. officials. Russia has also asked China for additional economic assistance, to help counteract the battering its economy has taken from broad sanctions imposed by the United States and European and Asian nations, according to an official. American officials ... declined to discuss any reaction by China to the requests.... Jake Sullivan, the White House national security adviser, is scheduled to meet on Monday in Rome with Yang Jiechi, a member of the Chinese Communist Party's elite Politburo and director of the party's Central Foreign Affairs Commission. Mr. Sullivan intends to warn Mr. Yang about any future Chinese efforts to bolster Russia in its war or undercut Ukraine, the United States and their partners." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Isabelle Khurshudyan, et al., of the Washington Post: "Local officials disappearing, public warnings that protests will be considered 'extremism' and signs of Ukrainian resistance anyway: This is what life looks like inside some Ukrainian cities now under the control of Russian troops, according to new photos and videos from those areas posted to social media.... Russia's advance through some parts of Ukraine may have stalled. But in the cities already captured, there has been popular pushback against what appear to be attempts at installing friendly lawmakers and quashing protests.... If [Vladimir Putin's] plan is to occupy Ukraine, then Ukrainians are showing that there will be significant resistance.... [President] Zelensky said Russian forces had captured the mayor of Melitopol, Ivan Fedorov, which sparked protests over the weekend.... Then on Sunday, Ukraine's foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, accused Russian forces of abducting Yevhen Matveyev, the mayor of Dniprorudne, a city of about 18,000 people in southeast Ukraine." ~~~
~~~ Isobel Koshiw of the Guardian: "Russian soldiers have shot people dead in the street as they took over Ukrainian villages, according to fleeing residents. Soldiers shot randomly at buildings, threw grenades down roads and went from house to house confiscating phones and laptops, witnesses said." The story relates a number of witness reports of atrocities, like this one: "So all of those houses along the main road from Bordyanka to Makariv were hit and some people died. Then they started to go house by house. They killed a teacher who was outside feeding her chickens."
Mstyslav Chernov of the AP: "A pregnant woman and her baby have died after Russia bombed the maternity hospital where she was meant to give birth, The Associated Press has learned. Images of the woman being rushed to an ambulance on a stretcher had circled the world, epitomizing the horror of an attack on humanity's most innocent. In video and photos shot Wednesday by AP journalists after the attack on the hospital, the woman was seen stroking her bloodied lower abdomen as rescuers rushed her through the rubble in the besieged city of Mariupol, her blanched face mirroring her shock at what had just happened. It was among the most brutal moments so far in Russia's now 19-day-old war on Ukraine." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Apparently, the woman & her new baby were among the "actors" the Russian embassy in London has claimed was a fake bombing. (Here's a Sky News story which reports Russia's foreign minister Sergey Lavrov makes a similar claim.
Jeff Stein of the Washington Post: "Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday asked President Biden to broaden America's economic campaign against Russia, telling the U.S. president that more should be done to cut off Russia from international trade, according to two people familiar with the phone call. Zelensky has been grateful and supportive of the economic penalties announced by the Biden administration to date, such as a White House measure announced Friday to end normalized trade relations with Russia. But he also requested that Biden seek to close loopholes in the existing sanctions, significantly broaden the list of sanctioned Russian government officials and restrict Russia's access to international waterways, the people familiar with the matter said."
Michael Schwirtz of the New York Times: "Brent Renaud, an award-winning American filmmaker and journalist, was killed in Ukraine on Sunday while reporting in a suburb of the capital, Kyiv, according to Ukraine's Interior Ministry. Mr. Renaud, 50, had worked for a number of American news and media organizations in the past, including HBO, NBC and The New York Times. The Ukrainian authorities said he was killed in Irpin, a suburb that has been the site of intense shelling by Russian forces in recent days, but the details of his death were not immediately clear. Ukrainian officials said another journalist was wounded as well. At the time of his death Mr. Renaud was on assignment for Time Studios working on a 'project focused on the global refugee crisis,' according to a statement from Time executives." An AP story is here. (Also linked yesterday.)
There Are Russian Refugees, Too. Anton Troianovski & Patrick Kingsley of the New York Times: "Tens of thousands of Russians have fled to Istanbul since Russia invaded Ukraine last month, outraged about what they see as a criminal war, worried about conscription or the possibility of a closed Russian border, or concerned that their livelihoods are no longer viable back home.... Tens of thousands more traveled to countries like Armenia, Georgia, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan which are better known as sources of migration to Russia. At the land border with Latvia -- open only to those with European visas -- travelers reported waits lasting hours.... The descent of Russia into new depths of authoritarianism has many Russians despairing of their future."
More Tucker, Please. David Corn of Mother Jones: "On March 3, as Russian military forces bombed Ukrainian cities as part of Vladimir Putin's illegal invasion of his neighbor, the Kremlin sent out talking points to state-friendly media outlets with a request: Use more Tucker Carlson. 'It is essential to use as much as possible fragments of broadcasts of the popular Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who sharply criticizes the actions of the United States [and] NATO, their negative role in unleashing the conflict in Ukraine, [and] the defiantly provocative behavior from the leadership of the Western countries and NATO towards the Russian Federation and towards President Putin, personally,' advises the 12-page document written in Russian. It sums up Carlson's position: 'Russia is only protecting its interests and security.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Donald Trump Explains Invasion of Ukraine as a Demostration of Putin's Love of Country. Andrew Stanton of Newsweek: "... Donald Trump said there is 'a lot of love' behind ... Vladimir Putin's efforts to make 'his country larger' on Sunday as Russian troops continued to invade Ukraine. Trump discussed the conflict during an appearance on Fox News host Jeanine Pirro's radio show Sunday. He said he believes Putin's ultimate goal is to eventually rebuild the Soviet Union, and he went on to explain what he believes to be Putin's mindset. 'You say, what's the purpose of this? They had a country. You could see it was a country where there was a lot of love and we're doing it because, you know, somebody wants to make his country larger or he wants to put it back the way it was when actually it didn't work very well,' Trump said." Firewalled.
Zolan Kanno-Youngs of the New York Times: "President Biden promised to unravel the 'moral and national shame' of the immigration policies enacted by ... Donald J. Trump.... [But] the gulf between Mr. Biden's words and his government's legal arguments is testing the patience of some of his supporters, including top Democrats in Congress. They say the administration is not only moving too slowly on promised reforms, but also is far too willing to use -- and defend -- Trump-era policies in the meantime.... The tension has also resonated inside the White House, where senior officials have been anxious that unwinding the Trump-era border restrictions would open the United States to an increase in illegal crossings at the southern border and fuel Republican attacks that Mr. Biden is too lenient on illegal immigration.... Mr. Biden has indeed taken steps to roll back much of his predecessor's agenda on immigration...."
The Pandemic, Ctd.
Amy Wang of the Washington Post: "Former president Barack Obama said Sunday he has tested positive for the coronavirus, noting that his symptoms appeared mild so far. 'I just tested positive for COVID,' Obama said on Twitter. 'I've had a scratchy throat for a couple days, but am feeling fine otherwise. Michelle and I are grateful to be vaccinated and boosted, and she has tested negative.... It's a reminder to get vaccinated if you haven't already, even as cases go down.'..."
News Ledes
New York Times: "A gunman has been targeting homeless men sleeping in the streets of Lower Manhattan and Washington and has shot five men, two of them fatally, in recent days, the police in the two cities said on Sunday. The two police departments said in a joint statement that 'similarity in the modus operandi of the perpetrator, common circumstances involved in each shooting, circumstances of the victims and recovered evidence' led them and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to undertake a joint investigation.... The Metropolitan Police Department [D.C.] released a photo taken from a security camera that shows the man being sought in the shootings."
New York Times: "William Hurt, who became a hot Hollywood commodity with his performance as a hapless lawyer in 'Body Heat' in 1981 and within a few years had won the best-actor Oscar for the 1985 film 'Kiss of the Spider Woman,' in which he portrayed a gay man sharing a Brazilian prison cell with a revolutionary, died at his home in Portland, Ore., on Sunday. He was 71."
Marie: Not all the news is sad or bad today. It turns out that quarterback Tom Brady's retirement was remarkably shortlived; he will be back in the fall for the 23rd season in which I have never seen him at work. ~~~
~~~ New York Times: Tom "Brady, the 44-year-old quarterback who has won the Super Bowl seven times, wrote on his social media accounts Sunday evening that he would return to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to play his 23rd N.F.L. season."
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Reader Comments (10)
The Pretender does make a kind of sense from time to time. Or maybe better: it's occasionally possible to make sense of what he says.
His explanation of the Ukraine invasion as an expression of Putin's love of country may be one of those.
As a confirmed and practicing narcissist, the Pretender is familiar with how it all works.
A narcissistic authoritarian's ego expands until it is congruent with the country. Soon the country and the person are one. Criticism of the person is criticism of the country and vice versa...and the same equation works for love. Both patriotism and treason are defined in the narcissist authoritarian's personal terms.
And for the narcissist leader who has confused himself with his country, love of self is tantamount to love of country....and the ever-expanding and and never satisfied ego always desires more love, which easily translates to more country.
There is never, never enough love.....or country.
How about Greenland?
@Ken Winkes: Yes, the greatest disappointment of Trump's presidency was not acquiring Greenland, by hook or by crook, preferably by crook. And why stop at Greenland? I think Trump should run in 2024 on a Make America Greater platform, with a promise to invade, occupy & create fabulous golf courses on numerous Atlantic islands.
"There is never, never enough love....or country."
I would add....there's never enough money. I'll never understand
why anyone with, say, 5 billion dollars can't be satisfied until
they have 10 billion dollars. Or someone with 5 houses wondering
where they will build their next 5 houses (the Humphreys of DHL).
Sometimes one house is too much work but I learned early on that
Condo is a four letter word.
Voting in Iowa: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/03/12/sundaytake-democrats-iowa-election/. The comments may be worth a read to be reminded why some people don't deserve democracy. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Enterprises. Lee owns 10 papers in Iowa. I think they set the agenda.
Ken: Excellent analysis of filling the hungry need for love and power and the bonding of self with country. I think, however, in Trump's case he was/is going solo–--connecting himself with country is too much of a leap for him since he operates on a singular modem–solo–- and has not the imagination to go further.
Tomorrow night PBS's Frontline (9.pm) is all about Putin–should be interesting to watch.
From fly-over country of the Iowas etc: did you know that 61% of Alaska is Federal property. Almost 30% of Montana and Washington, same. Imagine if the people of Chicopee and North Adams told Boston and P-town what to do with their neighboring properties? This tension will only increase as the rural people realize they have the fresh water supplies the urban areas require. Trumpism is the manifestation of loggers who can't log, miners who can't mine, factory workers who can't work because of policies driven by urban areas. Look at how easy war and conflict is advanced when the decision making is in few hands, like in Russia; or like in the (little) hands of the Orange Turd. Expanding democratic access has never been more urgent.
https://thehill.com/policy/international/598069-russia-threatens-to-pay-foreign-debts-in-rubles-following-sanctions
Sounds like default to me.
Good luck getting the next loan...
Protester in Russia detained with a blank sign.
Gee, Koch Industries have no interest in halting or even reducing their economic support for Putin’s war machine and his assault on innocent Ukrainians. I mean, c’mon! Money! What are the lives of stupid people who won’t agree to be Russian vassals when it set against shareholder profits?
Don’t forget, the Koch family, through the efforts of daddy Fred Koch, made its fortune by building refineries for Stalin and Hitler. The factory he built for Hitler produced aviation fuel for the Luftwaffe’s murderous bombing raids on London. Now there’s an achievement to be proud of, eh? Fred even hired a Nazi nanny to help inculcate his kids into the wonders of racist authoritarianism.
So it’s no surprise that the Koch company is all in on the latest Russian mass murderer. Also, don’t forget how important the Kochs have been in the effort to blow up democracy and ensure the hegemony of the Party of Traitors in this country.
As my mum used to say, show me your friends and I’ll tell you who you are.
Friends of the Republican Party…The Kochs, Stalin, Hitler, Putin…how did they miss out on Pol Pot?
Joey Manchin, attack dog for the extraction energy industries, has been sicced on Biden’s choice for the Federal Reserve by his masters in big coal, oil and gas who hold his leash and make sure he’s kept in doggie treats. Joey sez he’s “carefully reviewed” Sarah Bloom Raskin’s record.
Ay-yuh. Right. “Carefully reviewed” is Republicanese for “Saw two words: ‘climate change’ and shit my pants”.
Addressing the single most important issue in the world is anathema to the Party of Traitors, of which Joey is a much cherished honorary member. Especially if it means that their biggest donors might not be able to buy a third tropical island on which to build their seventh vacation mansion. That is, while they still exist above the waves.
“Joey! Sit! Roll over! Speak!”
“Ruff, ruff, NO to Biden! Bow-wow!”
“Good boy, Joey. Here’s a treat. Now go lick your balls. Oops, sorry. I forgot. We cut those off.”